Palin says Haiti needs military airlift

Sarah Palin urged Americans not to forget Haiti as she wrapped up a weekend visit to an aid group’s sites in the country coping with a cholera epidemic, earthquake reconstruction and political crisis.

Accompanied by her husband, Todd, daughter Bristol, a Fox News crew and the Rev Franklin Graham, who runs the aid group that hosted her, the former Alaska governor and US vice presidential candidate arrived in Haiti during a respite from the riots and violence that have followed the Caribbean nation’s dysfunctional November 28 election.

“I do urge Americans not to forget Haiti,” she said at a news conference.

Noting that severe problems afflicted Haiti even before last January’s devastating quake, she said her fellow citizens should “get out of your comfort zone and volunteer to help”.

Ms Palin visited Samaritan’s Purse projects including cholera clinics where people are being treated for extreme dehydration. More than 2,000 people have died of the disease, which scientists believe was recently reintroduced into Haiti, and nearly 100,000 have fallen ill.

Ms Palin’s trip was largely closed to the press and she declined to take questions at the news conference.